Messages

921

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 - Two types of Probe - Active low and active high - how to have both?

« on: January 09, 2022, 03:26:30 PM »

Hi,
with Mach3 you will struggle to have two probes. What you are in effect required to do is use an auxiliary output to switch a relay between two independent probe
circuits, one circuit ill require a logical invert so that as far a Mach3 is concerned there is only one probe.

Alternately step up to Mach4 where there are four independent probe inputs.

Craig

922

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G31.0 Probing with UC100 Issues

« on: January 08, 2022, 01:33:45 PM »

Hi,
that is correct and I believe the UC100 will perform that task no trouble. Just beware that there are dozens of Chinese ripoff copies of the UC100 on Ebay
and Amazon, buy genuine or don't buy.

Second issue is that if as a part of a Gcode probing routine what happens if a G31 does not result in a probe strike? Other reports I have seen suggest that
the UC100 halts or crashes the Gcode job, as it regards a G31 without a probe strike event as a failure.

As it turns out the Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS) behaves similarly, however there is a setting that can be made in the ESS plugin that stops the plugin
from issuing a <Cycle Stop>. Whether the UC100 has a similar setting I don't know.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=45652.msg290228#msg290228

Given that the UC100 is a single port device (17 IO's) I consider it poor value compared to the UC300 (85 IO's) or UC400 (34 IO's)from the same company but still
I by far and away prefer the ESS (51 IO's) by Warp9TD.

Craig

923

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can someone tell me why Z wont go to work zero and why Axis 3 ERROR??

« on: January 08, 2022, 01:17:22 PM »

Hi,

https://warp9td.com/index.php/kunena/7-general-discussion/9092-about-g31-and-ess

Craig

924

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can someone tell me why Z wont go to work zero and why Axis 3 ERROR??

« on: January 08, 2022, 12:31:50 AM »

Hi,
if your two motors never lost steps then your gantry would never get out of square....and surely you want to achieve that,
in which case just one Home switch would work.

There is a thread running on the Warp9 TD forum, and as it turns out the ESS, when homing, treats the master and slave as independent and
will home both simultaneously each to their own Home switch. The axis is considered Homed only when both motors are homed.
Does that sound like what you want?

Go check it out.

Craig

925

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Support Video "Probing Outside Corner Part 2 in probing"

« on: January 07, 2022, 06:46:31 PM »

Hi Toshio.K,
the lower of the two highlighted parts is very promising.

It suggests that if you add just one line of Lua code to the module that Mach4 will not be disabled on the report of a G31 failure, and in this thread
a G31 event which does not return a positive probe event is considered a failure by the ESS, but the NFS programmers did not anticipate that
a non-contacting G31 move would be treated as a failure.

Craig

926

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Support Video "Probing Outside Corner Part 2 in probing"

« on: January 07, 2022, 06:42:19 PM »

Hi Toshio.K,

See attached pic of the ESS Plugin Probing tab.

Craig

927

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Support Video "Probing Outside Corner Part 2 in probing"

« on: January 07, 2022, 06:22:52 PM »

Hi Toshio.K,
there may be a solution after all. There was a post on the Warp9 forum about this exact issue and Andy has indicated that there is a setting that can be made such that
the Lua code doe NOT hang when an unscessful G31 is made:

https://warp9td.com/index.php/kunena/7-general-discussion/9092-about-g31-and-ess#28980

Craig

928

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G31.0 Probing with UC100 Issues

« on: January 06, 2022, 11:19:57 PM »

Hi,

Has anyone else run into this problem?

Yes, quite a few posts have commented on that. ESS users have the same problem.

You are correct many controllers, the ESS, and by your description the UC100, hang if a probe contact does not occur before the terminal move.
Evidently its common practice  to write a G31 move to some location rather than a G1 or G0, the reason being that IF the probe touches the machine
will stop rather than crunch the probe. The only trouble is our controllers tend to hang if they don't get an expected probe contact.

At this stage NFS claim that its the motion controller plugin which is at fault while the motion controller manufactures claim its a Mach4 fault.....so neither
do anything about  it.

The only solution I'm aware of is to go through the code removing the offending G31's and replace them with G1's.

Craig

929

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 - Changing "Machine State"?

« on: January 04, 2022, 02:04:30 PM »

Hi,

The repeatability I feel will be much greater using hard stop homing controlled by the motors themselves. Plus it saves wiring and using switches.

I disagree, with roller plunger snap action microswitches I get within 0.02mm every time and have done for years. If you want to add Index Homing over and above
Home switches then the repeatability is the resolution limit of your machine, in my case 1um.

Craig

930

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 - Changing "Machine State"?

« on: January 04, 2022, 01:16:17 PM »

Hi,
I'm not sure about all the registers and timers etc but otherwise I understand.

If you jog an axis until it hits a hardstop Mach without a Limit witch or similar to detect it  Mach will assume the
axis has continued and the DRO will keep increasing/decreasing. Lets say you eventually stop the jog the DRO may well
show the axis has moved 100mm or more 'beyond' the hardstop.

Whether you back it of the hardstop or not still means that the DRO will show that the axis has traveled beyond the hardstop by
some margin.

The problem you face now is how to set the machine coordinate to zero. There is no instruction or API that allows you to set a machine
coordinate. You may find it hard to believe, but you can't. You could not in Mach3 and you can't in Mach4 either. I know you are going
to point out:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcAxisSetMachinePos(
number mInst,
number axis,
number val)

But try it, it does not work in the manner you think, it changes the value of the G54 such that the Work Zero is zero.....but does not change
the Machine zero. By all means experiment with it....I did because I was expecting to be able to set the machine coordinate, and failed.

There is ONLY one way to zero a machine coordinate (or alternately set it to some non-zero Offset value) and that is to Home an axis.
You may remember in Mach3 you can 'Home in Place', well you can do the same in Mach4.

So the procedure would be:
1)Drive the axis to the hardstop unitl it times out or until a detect switch triggers
2) Back the axis off using an INC jog
3) Home-in-PLace....in order to set the machine coordinate for that axis. Note that the Home-in-Place check mark for this axis in the
Control/Homing_and _Softlimits tab must be checked, then you use:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcAxisHome(
number mInst,
number axisId)

Description:
Used to start an axis homing.

Craig